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Catheter

In medicine, a catheter is a tube that a health professional may insert into part of the body. The process of inserting a catheter is catheterization. In most uses it is a thin, flexible tube: a "soft" catheter; in some, it is a larger, solid tube: a "hard" catheter.

Placement of a catheter into a particular part of the body may allow:

A central line is a conduit for giving drugs or fluids into a large-bore catheter positioned either in a vein near the heart or just inside the atrium.

See also:


Last updated: 02-08-2005 16:08:09
Last updated: 04-29-2005 16:21:04